Academic Progress

Student Financial Aid Satisfactory Academic Progress Policy

If you receive financial aid, federal regulations require that you meet federal academic progress standards while taking courses toward a degree or certificate program. This policy applies to all terms of enrollment, even if you didn’t receive federal aid. Your progress is measured by your cumulative grade point average, percentage of credits successfully completed, and the time it takes you to complete your program. To make sure you’re on track, we check your progress at the end of the fall and spring semesters.

Progress Standards

Completion Rate (67% Rule): You must receive a satisfactory grade in courses attempted by completing at least 67% of the credits for which you are enrolled. This percentage is calculated by dividing the number of credits you’ve earned by the number of credits you’ve attempted. We begin checking your completion rates after you have attempted 12 credits. We count all withdrawals and incompletes as attempted credits.

Maximum Hours (150% Rule): You may only receive financial aid up to the point at which you can no longer complete your program of study within 150% of the program length (including all semesters, even if you received no federal aid). For example, if your program requires 60 credits, you may only attempt up to 90 credits in that program. We count all credits attempted and all transfer credits that are applicable to your program.

Developmental Courses/English as a Second Language Courses: Developmental and ESL courses are evaluated in your progress calculation, including completion rate, maximum hours and cumulative grade point average. You may receive federal financial aid for a maximum of 30 semester hours of developmental coursework. There is no limit on ESL courses.

Cumulative GPA Minimum Requirements (GPA Rule): You must earn at least the minimum cumulative grade point average as shown in the table below based upon the number of credits attempted.

Cumulative Credits Attempted

Minimum Acceptable Progress Cumulative GPA

12-23

1.51

24-35

1.75

36-47

1.83

48-59

2.00

60+

2.00

Withdrawals, Incompletes, Audits and Repeat Courses: Withdrawals, Incompletes and Audits do not count as a passing grade. These grades are counted in attempted credits. Once an Incomplete grade has been changed to a passing grade, your progress can be recalculated upon written request. Repeated coursework is also counted as attempted credits, with all grades related to this repeated coursework included in your financial aid GPA calculation.

Change of Major and Second Degrees: Once you complete all the requirements for your program, you can no longer receive financial aid unless you enter a new degree program. You may apply for financial aid for the completion of two associate degree programs. All applicable courses in the completed program will count as part of the 150% attempted credits in your second degree program.

Ineligibility for Financial Aid

If you are put on academic suspension or academic probation here, you will be ineligible for financial aid. You may still enroll without financial aid if you are on academic probation.

If you do not meet the progress standard and cumulative grade point average requirements, you will be ineligible for financial aid.

Appeals

If you’ve faced mitigating circumstances that may have affected your academic progress, you may appeal an academic progress decision. Mitigating circumstances include your experiencing a serious illness or accident; the death, accident or serious illness of your immediate family member; or other mitigating circumstances beyond your control. To appeal, you must complete the Financial Aid Academic Progress Appeal Form, provide acceptable supporting documentation and complete all required steps outlined on the form.

If your appeal is approved, you must follow our academic plan/recommendations and successfully complete those courses with a grade of C or better in order to continue receiving federal student aid. Failure to follow the plan and successfully complete all registered courses during the semester of appeal will result in your having to successfully complete courses on your own until the academic standards are met as described in this policy. Successful completion means that you've receives a grade of A, B or C. Withdrawals, Incompletes or Audits do not count as a successful completion grade.

If your appeal is approved, the Financial Aid Office will place you on probationary status until you meet the minimum criteria for satisfactory academic progress.

Regaining Financial Aid Eligibility

If you do not meet satisfactory academic progress requirements and choose to enroll at the College without financial aid assistance, we will check your progress at the end of that term of enrollment. At that time if you do meet the requirements, we will reinstate your eligibility for financial aid in subsequent semesters.